Saturday, February 14, 2015

AAR -The French and Indian War goes Donnybrook

This is a fictional scenario set in the French and Indian war. The rules we are using is Donnybrook. In order to fit the period there have been some house rules added to the game.

Somewhere in the Colony of New York 1756....

The French raiders are comming.....

The borders of the Colonies are burning. This is just one of those days where the French, the Indians and the Colonist struggles for control over the Amerrican Wilderness. French raiding force is closing in on the small settlement of East Brumford. The force is led by the infamous leader of French
wilderness raiders Captain Jean Jacques Castroulle. For quite some time he has been without luck
bring home rich bounty that will ensure his comming promotion. Few in the upper echelons of power in Quebec truely understands the need to keep up the pressue on the wicked Anglo-american Colonist and their redcoated protectors.

The opening situation. The French attack from the North( the upper part of the picture). The defenders initially only consist of single unit of British grenadiers and a small group of Rangers.

The Grenadiers defending East Brumford.....

Several days of fruitless patroling in the woodlands south of lake Eire and no adequate target has been provided. Then one day the luck returns for our French friends. After the return of his Indian
scout Cpt Castroulle learns that the Colonist are gathering resouces near a small village.There are both civillians and a few Red coats in this settlement....and there is a strongbox. The colonists are probably depositing their valuables. The time to strike is now.

The Strongbox....and the Reverend providing an inpiratorial sermon before battle. The French are somewhere nearby closing on their objektive

In the meantime in East Brumford. After a number of raids in the area the locals are prepairing to leave the settlement and head for the nearest Brittish Strongpoint. The situation has become untangable. A Convoy is about to leave in a few days and the wagons are prepaired. Under the auspice of a group Grenadiers the locals are stashing their valuables in a strongbox( the very one Castroulle's scouts have spotted). The wagons and the civilans will leave as soon as Colonel Wilbourforce arrives with the main body of the escort.

The French Raiders snatches both the strongbox and the Reverend......

Intially the Grenadiers manage to stem the tide of French attackers. However a group of French Marines(Compagnie de Marine) manage to fight their to the strong box. The French also manage to grabb some hostages. The Rangers counterattack the Marines and kills most of them. The hostages managed to free themselves, but one single French soldier grabs the handle of the strong box.

The reenforcement are comming.....the Redcoats and their Mohawk allies arrives on the scene

A Major Mayhem in downtown East Brumford....

In the meantime the situation escalates into a major firefight. Colonel Wilburforce an his reenforcements arrives. It looks like the defenders will be able to stop the French attack. The casualties are high on both sides.

The Final moves of the game.....

The lone French Marine has not given up. With quite a bit of effort this lone soldier drags box to safety( at least from a French perspective). The game ended with a minor French victory.

The set up....

This is one of the Standard scenarios of the Donnybrook rules. The main body of the attacking force is deployed all at once from the outset of the game. The defender is arriving piecemeal as the game progresses. Donnybrook uses a card mechanism. Each unit on the table has it's own card and the units activated when it's card is drawn. The defender has only one card the first round. Each Round other of the defenders cards are added to the draw pile.The attacker has all it's card in the drawing pile from the start of the game(at least in this scenario!). There is also a stop card. If the stop card is drawn the turn ends. Thus there is a chance that some units will not move this turn.

Characters

There are a few characters in this scenario. Each side has 4 characters with their own special abilities. Each character on the table has also a card and are activated just like the unit when their card is drawn. In the orginal game the characters can't activate units, they just act on their own accord or when the unit they are attached to larger units. In our houserules we have allied the characters to activate units. The basic idea is to make them more in control of the whole situation. After all they are usually supposed to be officers. If a unit is within 12 inches of character or a character is attacked to unit the unit can be ordered to activate. In this scenario we had more than the usual ammount of Characters. Their was also as light deviation from the number set by the scenario i the rulebook. The game is based on points when setting up an army list. This was somewhat ignored in this case.

The game.....

The french force consists of

4 units

8 drilled French infantry

8 drilled Coreur de Bois

8 drilled Compagnie de Marine

8 drilled Indians

1 Officer( Cpt Castroulle)

1 Sergeant ( leader of the Comapgnie de Marine)

1 Sergeant ( Le Boeuf - leader of the Coreur de Bois)

1 Scout ( Mugua- Indian leader)

Please note that "drilled" in this case does not refer to their training as much as their moral and their ability to use their weapons. The troop levels in Donnybrook is Mob, Drilled and. Elite. Drilled unit usually has 8 miniatures. The same goes with the title/rank Officer, Ensign, scout and Sergeant. This label determines the character's abilities rather then their true rank.

The defensive force consist of

8 drilled Grenadiers

8 drilled Infantry

8 drilled indians

4 elite Rangers

8 drilled Rangers

8 drilled Anglo American Militia

1 Officer ( Colonel Wilbourforce)

1 Officer ( Major Rodgers)

1 Scout( Snake Eye - white man leasing Indians)

The objektive of the attacker is to kidnap civilians and steel the strongbox. The defender should try to prevent this.

Glad you liked the report Steve! :) time is always a factor and the learning curve tends to steapen when you to handle to many rulesets. We tried Musket and To avakta with these minis as well. They are good rules indeed. What attached us to Donnybrook was the simplisity of the basic mechanisms.